James Gosling: idealism, the Internet and Java, Pt I

The Internet was new in 1995 and computing was a different world: a siloed and primitive place of expensive and closed software.  Java helped change that: it simplified the process of writing code and allowed software to run almost anywhere unchanged, from PCs to TVs, from complex financial trading systems to a smart card in your pocket. Java was the realisation of a decades-old industry dream, of write-once-run-anywhere portability and it paved the way to an industry worth billions of dollars. James Gosling is the computer scientist who was Java’s chief designer and Language Makers spoke to James as Java marked its 25th anniversary. In part one of our interview, James tells us what inspired Java and what drove his team during those visionary days. We hear, too, how both James and his boss dramatically underestimated how successful Java rapidly became.